


Parallel Processing

by IscaRedspider



Series: Parallel Processing [ JSaB] [1]
Category: Just Shapes & Beats (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Crybaby belongs to Nna, Fantasy, Gen, Helico is Helicopter, Hydros is Boat, M/M, Pink and Square swear a lot, Second POV, Solarpunk, more taggs will be added as chapers go on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2019-09-17 04:52:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16968024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IscaRedspider/pseuds/IscaRedspider
Summary: More than year have passed since Treeangle ordeal. Pink and his friends are living their lives, but it's not over yet.





	1. The Countdown Point

_“If you told yourself how much your life will change in the year - you would never believe this!”_

Your name is Cube.

You are tall Arctic Elf. Your skin is blue with square-shapes freckles, your dark blue eyes are like glass: no pupils and slightly glowing. You hair is the same color as eyes, going down to your shoulders. Right now you are wearing you favorite oversized blue sweated you knitted yourself, dark jeans and boots. Two Triangles are floating about you head.

And now you are lost in you thoughts.

It’s been more than year since Pink tried to take over the Skrimsliheim. That incident forced you to acknowledge the fact you needed more help than you realised. It opened many wounds you were ignoring for years, thinking you can handle this yourself. Sometimes you wonder would the corruption affect you that much if you took care of yourself more properly?

Good thing you are not going to repeat this, and you on road of recovery.

_‘...The next stop is “  The Grand Plaza of Sol”.’_

Strange though. As you recover from damage, you discover more things about yourself, you still can use the abilities from that fight for example. You can transform your arms into industrial claws, or sawblades, and even summon gears out of nowhere!

It was complete unexpected! You were always considered to be a late bloomer when it came to magic and then, suddenly, you can summon all this stuff without trying.

You wonder if it’s because you want to help Square more or maybe you became more stable to handle this?

_‘...The next stop is “Arcology Complex “Aesir”.’_

Of course is not that easy! If you want to help Square, you have to learn how to control it. That’s why you enrolled to Sevcom’s magic courses and Art of War’ fighting lessons couple months ago. You’ve been improving a lot thanks to that, but you still need some important adjustments.

The corruption may gave you new abilities, but your prosthetic arms began to malfunction because of it! Any negative emotion triggered transformation and you were lucky if it’s claws. Once your hand turned into sawblade when you got spooked by random noise. Good thing it wasn't spinning or you would cut Square in half!

The memory sends shivers down to your spine.

This is why you are sitting in the tram and going to Spectra. He’s a one of the best specialist in Skrimsliheim who make artificial replacements for people. He called you yesterday and said he finished fixing your limbs and you can take them.

_“...The next stop is “Technical Center “Beehive”.’_

Announcer's voice got your attention this time. This is your stop. You got up from the seat and moved to the doors. Is a short ride from “Aesir” and you need to get ready.

Honestly, deep down you feel bad! It's like...fourth time he’s calibrating your arms, so they’ll function properly and you would have more control over transformations. Maybe you should just stop and use regular arms, like ones you are wearing right now....

But then you’ll lose your new abilities and as scary as it is, you don’t want to waste this opportunity!

Claws can be useful! You could lift heavy stuff with little effort.

Or keep Square out of unnecessary trouble!

The tram stops and opens the door, you almost arrived to your destination. A tall building before you, that almost covered in vegetation, like the rest of the Paradise.

You get into the building. This place is always buzzing with busy Apislings flying around. You take the elevator and go the 67 floor, then take turn in the hall straight into Spectra’s office.

You knock then open the door.

You see Spectra sitting by his desk. He's short, has dark purple skin, light purple hair with orange stripes, his eyes are faceted and orange. Pair pf insect wings are growing from his back. He's wearing suite with big hexagon on his chest and long coat. His thee-fingeres hands typing something. He seems busy.

You also noticed your arms on the desk.

“Hello?” you asked quietly.

“Hey, Cube, come, take a seat!” he greeted you without turning his head from monitors.” Give me a minute.”

You moved forward and sat down.

You look at the arms again. Since arms are not active, no skins are applied to them. They look like they were made of some kind of synthetic red crystals. It’s partly true, but it’s much lighter and compatible with magic than other analogs.

“So, looks like I finally made this working!” Spectra turned to you, sounding excited “I’ve found the way to store the energy you get from negative emotions that your triangles transfer to lims! And I managed to separate the storage from automatic executive function! That means your arms won't transform on their own and all you need to do is think about transformation!”

Your face beamed, this is wonderful news!

“Here.” he took arms from table “ Put them on and I’ll run a quick diagnostic to make sure everything is working.”

You nod and put your arms on, placing your spare pair into inventory. Spectra activates his magic with his own small triangle on his left hand. A holographic screen appeared before him.

“Okay, let's start with basic functions.” he said.

You turn one arm, then the other around, then both palms and then wiggle your fingers. You repeated this couple of times. Everything feels normal.

“Excellent! Now try to transform your arm into claw.” he instructed.

You got stuck. Claws usually appeared when you got angry, but now you must figure it out how summon it without getting upset. It’s making you nervous.

“Take your time, we are not in hurry.” Spectra reassured you.

Focus, focus, you need make the claw appear. You thought about it, then you visualised in in your mind and suddenly you left arm transformed. Woops, you expected your right arm to change for some reason. You have to specify each time. Well, you can handle this!

“Great! Looks like nothing broken! How do you feel?” Spectra asked

“I feel fine...actually I feel better now!” feeling of control over your power feels amazing. No more accident sawblades! You turn to him with smile “Thank you, Spectra!”

“No problem! It was challenging though. I never seen this huge spike of energy going through someone’s prosthetics. Hell, even my colleague were so interested in this, that I had hard time to keep their spider grabby hands from your limbs!” Spectra admitted “What kind of magic you were exposed to again? The corrupted Treeangle’s piece, right?”

You nod.

“Whoever did this must be powerful being, that even Goliath Monsters were driven to madness!” he exclaimed. “ I hope it won’t happen again.”

Spectra don’t know. Nobody really knows except few people. You think it’s for the best, because Pink promised you and he’s actually working hard to make this up to all of you.

“Thanks for help again!” you thanked him again.

“Take care, give me a call if something will break again!”  you said goodbyes and you exited the building. You probably should go home and continue working on new song? Or actually have a day off for today?

Before you could decide, someone pushed you aside and you nearly fall. You quickly regained you balance and saw this Forest Elf trying to get away from….who?

Suddenly a cyan color flashed besides you and the next second the Forest Elf was on the ground with your best friend sitting on top of them.

They are short Legendary Shape with four turquoise with white square pupils. Their cyan are glowing and go down to their shoulders, sometime emitting small square particles. They are wearing trademark L'Shape suite, this one has short sleeve and shorts woth deep pockets, decorated with dark squares.

“Square!” you greeted them with smile.

“Hey!” the legendary shape waved to you “Can you imagine, there are still people who think that stealing is cool?” they huffed while pointing at the Elf under them.

In the next second Termination Shock appeared on their hoverboard next to you two. They are very tall Desert Elf, with dark skin, dreads and green eyes, wearing the police officer uniform.

“In the name of the Law, you are under arr-- Oh hey, Square and Cube!” the Desert Elf hopped off their hoverboard and materialised the handcuffs from their inventory. “Thanks for assistance, Square! You can go now.”

Square nods and both of you went to the tram stop, letting the police officer handle the situation themselve.

“So, how it went? Tell me everything!” they urged.

You chuckled at Square’s enthusiasm and decided to show them! This time you focused on your right arm and transformation went a bit faster! See, you just need to get used to this!

“Wow! So you can control it completely!? Awesome!” Square exclaimed while inspecting your metal claw.

“Yeah, finally!” you said with relief.

“Hey, how about pizza to celebrate?” they suggested.

“Yes! Let’s go!” you beamed and  just in time the tram arrived.

Yes, the universe is with you today.

The day off it is.

* * *

You are falling.

You see debris of your castle, parts of the throne room are flying by. Somehow you landed onto part of the floor? Or maybe it’s a wall you cannot tell as you keep falling.

The dark creatures you tried to run away from are catching up with you. They are fast, you cannot outrun the, so, you have to fight!

One of the things launched at your head, you swiped your sharp claws at it, slicing it in the half. The creature disintegrated, but many others came to its place. You swipe your claws fiercely, making hit after hit, hoping that creatures will leave you alone, but they keep coming.

You summon two additional arms, while launching you main pair at ones who are farther away to keep them at bay.You fire lasers at them, creating big explosions. You fire spikes at them, you keep tearing them apart, but their numbers are rising.

You yelpled in surprise as someone tackled you from behind. You fall down and murderswarm starts coiling around you, grabbing your arms, legs, torso and head, making impossible for you to move. Then you see this one-eye creep.

Something about this one terrifies you, it’s not the first time you are seeing this thing. It’s gets closer you your eye and...

You hit floor.

Your eye opens. Few moments passed until you realised you are in your apartment.

Your name is Pink and you are starting the day by kissing the floor. Again.

You are very tall Cyclope. Your have dark cherry colored skin with pink freckles, short pink hair, pink eye with white pupil. Your arms are covered with spikes that currently sofl and rest on your skin. 

You reached your phone to check the time. It’s 14:03 pm. Ugh you overslept again.

You get up from the floor and sigh. Why every time you dream about homeworld those dreams are always weird and creepy?

Ugh, you need to get rid of this image of this freakin one-eyed thing from your head. You move to window, trying to distract yourself. Thankfully, your windows are facing south and you can see Treeagnle in the distance. The planetary rings make an perfect arch above it, creating a cool scene. Since it’s day and Sol is out, the rings shine even brighter, while at night they are barely visible. Probably because the planet orbits the red dwarf and it’s far away.

Now when you think about it, without Sol, this giant Celestial Beast that orbits about Skrimsliheim, this world would be just lifeless ice rock... What a strange place.

You look down at city. It’s clean and well contained thanks to Arcology Complexes. It has a lot of vegetation and uses safe energy. Something you never thought it’s possible, because your world is just some dystopian bullshit! You are really lucky that you have found this world, but you wish you hadn't made this stupid mistake that messed up you and anyone else!

Okay, don’t think about it!

Look, you can see Cube’s house on the edge of the Paradise from here! Thinking about them always making you smile and at peace.

Heh, one of the pros living on higher floors.

Alright, you should grab breakfast and…? Well, you’ll figure this out!

You went to the kitchen, get some toast bread, butter and multiple types of cheese from refrigerator. Yes, time to make the best cheese sandwich!

You put butter first, but since you are still sleepy, you start zoning off. Suddenly your phone is vibrating. It scared shit out of you that you dropped the sandwich. Of course it landed onto butter side!

“AGGH! WHY DO YOU HAD LAND LIKE THIS YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!” you yelled at poor piece of bread. Now you have to clean this up, this is stupid bullshit! You need to go and grab the broom. As you began to move you are already forgot about poor sandwich on the floor, you stepped on it and slipped.

With yell you kissed the floor again!

WHY?!

This is too much, you scream in frustration while lying on the floor.

Yes, the universe is against you today.

Who the fuck is decided to call you anyway???

You grab the phone to see who is this motherfucker was. The first thing you see is messages from...Hydros? What? Why?

    _Hydros: hey, lad! do you remember we are supposed to meet today?_

_Hydros: at “siren’s song” ?_

Whaaaa..? But wait, you remember something like this!

Yeah!

You asked him to explain you the Goliath Monster thing to you. It bugs you actually, because everyone thinks this is what you are! Recently you've noticed that even in your ID says it, but you are cyclops! From another world! Well, at least you were born as one, maybe something has changed?

Square said you could ask Hydros about it since he’s Goliath Monster himself. You decided why not and here you are, COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THIS!

Welp. No time. You texted him you’ll be in 5.

You quickly ran to your room to change your clothes, then looked up in your phone where exactly “Siren’s Song” is. Hm, it’s a cafe, right?

You got the location, it’s not far away from “Aesir”, the arcology complex you live in. You could even run there and get in time, but why run when you can just open a portal there!

With one swift motion you dug your claws into thin air, except in reality you are touching the fabric of space itself. With force you rip this fabric, opening black portal. This portal goes through the void right to your destination.

Wasting no time, you stepped through the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> Random facts:  
> \- I was influenced by God of War and Norse mythology, that's why I named world "Skrimslihem" and put some name references here and there. “Heim” means home, “skrimsli” means monster according to google. People of this world name other dimensions ( like others ppl au’s) and planets like this, ending the name with “heim”.  
> \- It’s a earthlike planet, with same axial tilt (~23 degree) with saturn-like rings.  
> \- It’s a fifth planet in the solar system and orbits around red dwarf star, outside of habitat zone. Not tidally locked. Would be frozen world if not presence of Sol.  
> \- Sol is Celestial Beast, ~ 4000km long. He orbits around Skrimsliheim below rings. Retrograde orbit. His magic gives all necessary warm and light to the planet, but don’t hurt. You can look at him with naked eye and be near him without being roasted. Sol making seasons happen by slowly moving towards one of the poles.  
> 


	2. One of the Pack

Your name is Pink and for a second you were surrounded by darkness.

As you stepped out of your portal the first thing you saw is Hydros...who was turning around at this very moment and jumped in surprise when he saw you.

“Fuck!” startled, you let out a small shriek.

“Dude, ya can’t scare me like this!” Hydros crossed his arms, glaring at you.

“What?! You’re the one who’s jumping around like stinged grasshopper!”

You both angrily staring at each other. You were going to say something, but his rumbling stomach got ahead of you.

“Fine, let’s come inside, I’m starving!”

Well, that’s works too.

You followed Hydros into the cafe.

The interior looks like ocean floor: with coral decorations and shells and wall aquariums. You stick out your snake tongue couple of times - smells like ocean. And various foods.

Stars, now you are hungry! Did you even eat yesterday?!

You choose this nice table by the window and activated menu on table surface. You see dishes with seafood and meat, various vegetarian food, deserts. A lot of delicious stuff. But you are looking for one thing...where it -- aha! The Four-Cheese Pizza, this is what you were looking for! And lemonade.

“Do you want pizza?” you asked Hydros before ordering yours.

“Nah, I can’t really digest this stuff.” he chuckled awkwardly “They’ve got something for carnivoros, no worries. By the way, Helico will join us soon too! She wants to hang out with us.”

Helico?

She was there during your corruption right?

It’s strange, your friends keep mentioning her, but you never actually talked to her after the accident. Cube said she and Hydros are old friends, so it makes sense if she wants hang out with him.

Maybe it’ll be better if you’ll leave when she arrives.

Honestly, now you are thinking it’s probably weird idea to come here. You should have done a research on your own instead of bugging other people.

“So, what do ye wanted to know more about Goliath Monsters?” Hydros’ voice pulled you out you train of thought.

Well, too late to bail, you gotta deal with it right now.

“Yeah, I mean, I came from another world and such and I actually used to be another being. But suddenly I’m one of you? Like officially?” you not sure what exactly you want to know, but this fact is bothering you.

“Hmm, are ya saying you wasn’t born like this?” he questioned, looking puzzled.

“Yeah...I don’t think we have big creatures living in my homeworld. I thought maybe it’s because of Treeangle or…” you trailed off.

“Good question! Can’t tell for sure because I never saw someone turning into Goliath Monster but I guess Treeangle’s Celestial power can --”

“Wait, did you said you never someone turning into Goliath Monster? I thought this is how are you doing this, like you wanted some power and became a beast?” you are confused now.

Hydros laugh at your suggestion. You feel embarrassed, seriously, you should have stayed home.

“Sorry, but nope, you are the first I think.” he calmed down a bit. “ We are born as feral beasts, then grow huge and then, if we are lucky, evolve into sentient being and obtain our smaller, changeling form.”

“Changeling form?”

“You and me are using form right now. It’s smaller form that can be transformed into anything. You can even modify it, for example, I look like Siren, but I have legs instead of fishtail. Some making their changeling form look completely unique.”

“So are you saying I can turn into, I don't know, Square and be immortal?”

“Well, you can copy an appearance but not the abilities.”

So, you can change your look at will, huh? So look at Hydros and realized, that you always seen him like this: Siren with light blue skin, really long and braided white hair, with ancient looking pirate hat and some sort of pirate clothes? It brings a question.

“So, if you a monster, how come you never transformed into your true form to stop me?”

Hydros looked a bit nervous.

“Let’s say, it’s not a good idea for me to transform where many people can see me.” he hesitated.

That’s odd. You saw many Goliath Monsters running around freely, it doesn’t seem like it’s socially forbidden or something. But now you got curious.

“So, what are you? I mean, your big form?”  

“I’m Anglerfish.”

The food was delivered. You got your pizza and Hydros got some sort of raw fish with spices. Pizza is delicious, but you can't help but think about what Hydros said. Does it mean your original form in fake now? An illusion? That’s disturbing.

Before you could ask Hydros more, a hand landed onto his shoulder, making him jump. You looked up to see a tall person, with six arms, metal yellow legs, red and blue hair. They are wearing dark blue overalls with cyan LED lights and orange t-shirt underneath it.They also have eight eyes. This instantly remind you of someone you want to forget so badly. But you recognize this fae: it’s Razor Sharp, a  goliath spider monster.

“Hey, fishy, did expect to see you here!~” they said with mocking tone. Something tell you they are not Hydros’ friend.

“Razor, you can’t scare people like this and I’m on the middle of something here!” Hydros hissed, swiping their hand off his shoulder.

They looked at you and your blood run cold. They are intimidating as hell!

“Oh, I remember you, you are that winged centipede right?” they sounds more friendly “You need to be cautious as black mage. Form pact with wrong god and they’ll screw you. Are you doing okay by the way?”

“Um..” that caught off guard. “Yeah I think, thanks.”

“Sweet! Just be careful, okay? Don’t interact with lesser voidlings, those are sneaky bastards.” they smirked. You nod.

Than they turned to Hydros.

“Okay, fishy, can we have a minute?”

“What, right now?”

“Yes, right now! You owe me, remember?”

Hydros growled, but got up.

“I’ll be right back, lad!”

Hydros and Razor Sharp left, leaving you with your pizza and thoughts. Their concern looked kinda random, but you guess it makes sense? You heard something about black mages, who forms pacts with Eldritch Gods of the Void.

From what you heard, Razor Sharp is black mage and they have pact with Chronos, who controls time. They made a field that not only stopped the your corruption from spreading, but as you found out later, warped time inside and it actually took twenty minutes for Square to defeat you instead of two hours.

They think you did it, because you formed a pact with wrong god and they sort of controlled you? You always had void powers, but you don't remember forming a pact with someone. You know it was your dumb decision and nothing more.

Still, people think you are Black Mage, who formed packt specifically with Milky Ways. Turns out this murderswarm grants their followers the power of traveling through Void, like you do.

Your powers in Skrimsliheim is something that occasionally happens, unlike your world where only ones who has it is you and...well, her. Sometimes you think maybe she’s actually victim of one of those lesser voidlings, that Razor just warned you about.

That thought made you realize another thing.

It’s probably strange, but you never actually felt any influence from any denizens of the Void. You can hear and see them. They know about your existence too but they don't interact with you. Maximum you had it’s their constant chattering in the back of your head. It became a white noside over the years, so it doesn't bother you. Sometimes you listen their conversations out of boredom.

Actually they sound pretty excited right now, what’s going on?

You focused your mind on their voices.

 _“Hehehe, so the purple pests INVADED them? What a losers!”_ squeaky voice gigled.

 _"Oh yeah, they are screwed!”_ more deeper voice stated.

 _“And hey pissed Nightingale and Canary, they are totally dead HAHAHAHA!”_  squareaky one laughed. _“Master is enjoying the show for sure~”_

Yeah, looks like they are having fun..

 _“Oh, look we have a vessel here!”_ a really low voice said.

 _“Metal vessel, metal vessel, metal vessel of fools!!!”_ multiple voices started chanting. _“Beware, little Prince!”_

Okay, you decide to stop, the last one was too ominous.

You sighed.

Suddenly you heard a sound of someone tapping the glass behind you. You turned around and jumped on your seat with yelp.

FUCKING SQUARE!

They’re pressing their stupid face to the window and grinning like total dumbfuck!

“I SWEAR I’LL KILL YOU, ASSHOLE!” your hands moved fast, you are not you sure if you didn’t messed up the signs, because you are still new to sign language but you don't care!

Now they’re laughing. Greeeat! Despite the window being soundproof you still can hear their obnoxious laugh in your head. You glare at them, then you noticed that Cube with them too! Your heart skipped a beat and you are blushing! Good thing you have dark skin and black blood, so it’s don’t visible.

The are smiling as their hand moves softly.

“Sorry.”

Well, you can’t stay mad, Cube is way too cute! You smiled back.

You see Helico is also with them. She’s white and chubby robot, with wires going out of her head, forming two ponytails that she’s spinning when flying.

You debated for a moment about leaving, but you decided to stay.

* * *

Your name is Square and you are laughing your ass off,  Pink’s reaction is precious!

“You just can’t contain yourself, are you, Square?” Helico giggled.

“Well, it’s fun to mess with him!” you admitted.

“It’s nice to see that you two are getting along. He may not admit it, but he seem grateful.” Cube smiled. “Let’s join him!”

On the way inside you spotted Hydros with Razor Sharp arguing about something. Those two have a history of hating each other for centuries, but you don’t know why exactly. You decided to not interfere and followed Cube and Helico into the cafe.

You found Pink sitting by the window, sending you death glares. This sight only made you laugh again.

“You know,Pink, you look adorable when you're mad!” you said between wheezes.

“SHUT UP!” he barked.

“Hi!” Cube greeted him.

“H-hey! Sooo, your arms are good now?” and his mood instantly took 180 degree turn, you snickered.

“Yep, Specta fixed them! No more accidental sawblades!”

“That’s awesome!”

Helico also said hi and all of you sat down. You, of course, sat with Pink and you heard him muttering “for fucks sake” as he rolled his eye. Cube sat down in front of you and Helico took a chair and sat between you.

“I didn’t expect run into you, Pink, what a surprise!” Cube said.

“Heh, yeah. I just wanted to ask Hydros something before he got stolen.”

“Yep, we saw them. I hope Razor won't kill him.” Cube said with concerned tone.

“So, are they enemies?” Pink asked

“Yes.” Helico spoke this time. “Hydros said something about turf wars once. Considering the fact he used to be a pretty violent and aggressive fish, you wouldn't be surprised if he tried to invade Razor’s territory.”

“Yeah, he has a lot a enemies among Goliath Monsters.” you confirmed.

Speak of the devil, there he is!

“Hey, you alive!” you greeted him.

He just groaned in response.

Cube stood up to let him get to his set and sat back. Time to order some food!

You’re getting yourself a slice of chocolate cake, Cube is looking for the most spiciest thing they can find and Helico is ordering ice cream, even though she doesn't have to eat. Food is delicious and it’s hard to resist.

You turn to Pink to see what's he’s is doing. He seem being long in thought, his pitch black tongue sticking out occasionally. You couldn’t resist but made a “bleleleleleleleh” sound every time time he did it. Eventually it drew his attention and he looked at you with annoyed expression. You gave him a toothy smile in return, then leaned onto his shoulder.

“So, Cherryboy, how are you doing?”

“I’m fine, but I would be better if not your petrified face pressed across the window!” he growled at you, crossing his arms and turning away from you.

You placed your hands onto his shoulders and floated in front of his face upside down.

“Looks like I scared a local cherry today!” you singsonged at him.

“I’ll bite your face off if you won’t stop.” he threatened, but you can see him smirk.

“Aww, you two are adorable!” suddenly you hear Cube’s voice.

It made Pink turn around so fast you almost got tossed at the window.

“We are not, we are enemies!” he declared.

“Of course ~” Cube just giggled.

As timing was perfect, the food was delivered.

You’ve spend some time just enjoying the food and talking about random stuff. Cube is sharing some astronomy news, Hydros has found another artifact on the bottom of the sea, Helico is telling stuff that Sol discovered.

“Also, Sol says “Hi” to all of you!” Helico cheered.

“Aw, it’s nice of him!” Cube commented.

Pink looks puzzled though. Well, he’s new to this world, you can’t blame him.

“Celestial Beasts can spectate others and even talk to us through telepathy.” you explained.

“Oh...is this what you meant by “hanging out with him a lot”?” he realized.

“Of course! Well, I could borrow Cube’s spaceship and go onto orbit, sure, but it’s much easier.” Helico said.

“Heli, I don't’ have a spaceship though. It’s hoverbike.” Cube corrected.

“Crap, it keep forgetting this!”

“Wait, you have a hoverbike!?” Pink’s eye sparked with excitement.

“Yeah!?” Cube is surprised by his question. “Well, it’s been a while since I rode it though.”

“Yeah, but that means I can ride it!” you exclaimed.

“Square, no! After last time I’m not allowing you to go near this thing!” they protested.

You laughed. Well, it’s  true! You tried to do some cool tricks with it, you were spinning like crazy and nearly crashed into Treeanagle.

“Alright, alright, I won’t!” you raised your hands.

“Take that, pixie!” Pink muttered, you elbow him in response. It made him giggle, of course. He’s ticklish! Oh, should torture him now!

Suddenly Pink’s expression changed from cheeful to concerned.

He can sense magic, right? Did he noticed something?

“Pink?” Cube called his name.

He looked into the window, tryin to see something in the sky. As he knew, a black portal has opened and a big ship appeared.

Pink’s spikes on his arms stood up instantly. It usually happen when he’s nervous or ready to fight.

That’s not good!

“A Spaceship?” Hydros suggested.

“It’s looks pretty primitive.” Cube commented “ And spaceships are not supposed to fly above Paradise this close.”

“No way…” you hear him whispering who’s not tearing his gaze from spaceship.

“What’s wrong?” you asked.

Pink hesitated to say something first, like he couldn’t believe what he is seeing right now.

“They have found me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! <3  
> Random Facts:  
> \- Razor Sharp is shameless self insert :D  
> \- There is reference to Nna's story - "Purple is the New Fresh"!  
> \- Square's shenanigans with hoverbike were inspired by craziness you can do with Sparrows in Destiny 2.


	3. One-Eyed Infestation

Your name is Square and looks like is shit is about to get down.

Pink is swiping hand frequently, but only black sparks are coming from his claws.

“Crap, I can’t open a portal, they are blocking my abilities!” he hissed in frustration.

“What? How?” you asked in surprise.

Instead of answering, Pink got up and ran to the exit. “I need to get away!”

“Wait!”  Cube ran after him as you followed them with others.

Outside you saw Pink already running away on all fours. Damn, why he just can’t wait for you?! Good thing you are fast and will catch up with him in no time.

Suddenly a rainbow portal opened underneath you. That means Termination Shock is summoning you, they only do this when they need your assistance! And more, Hydros is summoned as well.

“It’s must be serious!” Hydros stated.

“Go help the officer!” you hear Helico as she picks up Cube and taking off into the air.

”We’ll catch up with Pink!”

“Alright, let’s go!” you and Hydros stepped through the portal. What did you see is something: a bunch of subdued people, that appeared to be the same species as Pink, are lying on the ground. Razor Sharp also appeared next to you. Hydros flinched but said nothing.

“What happened?” you asked.

“They just came and demanded to hand over their prince and attacked us.” the police officer explained. “Seems like there is a small army, teleporting down from that ship!”

Prince? Is Pink their PRINCE?

“Do you know anything about this? They look like your friend.”

“Well, yeah.They’re after Pink and they are doing something to prevent him from teleporting!” Hydros explained.

“Oh,I sense they seems like emitting something that disrupts black magic.” Razor growled as the cracked their knuckles. “I’m gonna turn this ancient piece garbage into scrap!”

Termination Shock looked at the ship. “Alright, do it!”

“Yes! The ship is mine!” Razor jumped into the air, transformed into Goliath Jumping Spider and used the nearby building to launch themself even higher. Always too eager to blow shit up!

“Now you two, seek those guys and stop them before they do any damage! But careful: those criminals are armed with shockers!” the offices warned.

“Alright, let’s beat those bastards!” you cracked your knuckles.

“Heh, let’s catch them!” Hydros smirked. He raised his arm and snapped his fingers. The blue magical ring appears from the thin air as a flying fish passed through it. Hydros jumped onto it’s back and both of you dashed off.

It didn’t took long to find other Cyclopes, two groups were causing chaos on the different parts of the street, calling Pink’s name and demanding from people to disclose his location. Good thing citizens mostly know how to defend themself or quickly escape.

“Hey, I’m gonna be after those guys!” you pointed at ones on the east near the tram stop. Hydros nodded and went after those on the south.

You gained speed and dashed right into yellow one, knocking them off their feet.

“Greetings, I see you lost and I’m gonna be you new guide today!” you smirked are red and ruby ones staring at you in confusion.

“What is this? A fairy?” one whispered.

“With four eyes??” second exclaimed.

“Where is Prince Pink? Hand him over immediately!” olive one demanded.

“Nah, today is his day off, sorry, no Pink for you! ” you shrugged

Olive growled in frustration and charged at you.

“After you!” you simply move to the side and they collided with Yellow that only got  back on their feet.

“Watch where you are going, you fuck!”

“Get out of my way!”

“You get out!”

You watch with amusement their struggle, but completely forgot about others. Ruby used this in advantage and tossed you against the wall. The impact was enough to loudly crack you, but you felt little pain.

Good, they just made the whole situation worse to themselves!

“Oh, so you wanna play?” you smirked as cyan poison stats seeping through cracks, forming wavy patterns on your skin. Instantly you dashed towards red one and touched their face. Since you hit the head the effect of the poison was instant. Red’s eye widened as they looked panicked, looking around, and taking few steps back. Then...

“No! Leave me alone!” they screamed and ran away.

You turned to remaining opponents, opening your arms.

“Then let’s play MY game!” you dashed to Olive and Yellow. Yellow dodged your attack, but you touched Olive’s arm. ”And see how long you’ll last!”

Someone grabbed you from behind with yell “I’ve got them!” but in few seconds they let you go. You turn around to see Ruby again.

“Wow, you never misses an opportunity, don’t you?” you mocked them as they try to get rid of poison in panic “But didn’t you know you cannot touch animals with bright patterns, aren’t you?”

Suddenly you felt something rudely poking your back, electrical sparks are flying everywhere. You slowly turn around to see the Yellow, with their shocker poking you.

Oh yes, trying to electrocute the stone, very smart!

“What the hell are you?!” Yellow whimpered as their hands starts shaking.

You grab still electrocuted pole and put your other venomous hand onto their cheek.

“Your worst nightmare.” you said with low tone.

“Snap out of it, just attack!” Olive ordered.

Cyclopes attacked you more fiercely,this is exactly that you expected.

Your poison is hallucinogen: it puts your target into unsettling environment that scares them, forcing them to flee or fight you. When they fight, the poison wears the off much faster, rendering them exhausted and unable to fight.

After few minutes Ruby collapsed. Olive is charging at you again. Moved you position specifically to Yellow and once again both of them are on the floor.

“WILL YOU STOP GETTING IN MY WAY!?” Olive screamed as they attacked Yellow. Those two were rolling of the ground, completely forgetting about your presence as you’re laughing hard. Wow, you’re enjoying putting your enemies against each other! So much fun!

But you fun time was interrupted by “ **DON’T TOUCH MY HAT!** ” coming out of nowhere. It’s sounded like a low and growling female-ish voice, like angered Hydros. Because whatever you do: never touch his hat!

Maybe you should go and hel-

A green Cyclops flies above your head, knocking them, Olive and Yellow out.

Okay, never mind!

You see Hydros walking to you, his Goliath Form is showing: anglerfish sharp teeth are visible as big claws of both hands, scales and fins are covering his body.

“Nice toss! Are you okay?” you asked, making sure he’s not hurt.

“ **YEAH, BUT I MADE SURE THOSE BASTARDS ARE NOT!** ” he growled, crossing his arms. He took few deep breaths to regain his usual changeling form.

“Looks like we are done with them! Should we search for more?” he looked at you.

“Yep!”

The next location was Sol’s Plaza.  What you witnessed when you got there is masterpiece: a pure chaos, now you can tell that those troops were not ready for any of this! You and Hydros burst into laughs.

One Cyclops got stung by Forest Elf and now hallucinating about...water? They are trying to “swim”. Other got frozen and struggling while cursing loudly. Couple of them got kicked and chased by Centaurs. The groups of five was entangled with vines on the tree in most awkward and embarrassing positions while Dryads are making fun of them. Two of them are hiding in the corner. And your personal favorite: group of Cyclopes being chased in circles by Unlocked, who in his six-legged Goliath Rat form.

You were about to say something as Cyclopes suddenly got teleported. Puzzled you looked for their ship and saw it’s swarming with Goliath Monsters, including Razor Sharp, that tearing the ship apart. Then one smaller ship fled out of this thing, Razor jumped on top of it and chomped it’s wing off. In this moment the big ship disappeared in the back portal. Same happened with smaller one, leaving Razor with nothing but one wing.

“Hm, did they just retreated?” Hydros is confused as you are.

“Probably?” you shrugged, but you realized, they came after Pink! Could it be?

Quickly you took your phone and dial him. He didn’t picked up. You tried couple of times but with same results.

“Shit!” you cursed. Then you dial Cube.

* * *

 

_40 minutes earlier..._

Your name is Cube and you have catch up with Pink fast!

Good thing Helico can fly and in few minutes you could see Pink.

“Pink, wait for us!” surprisingly it got his attention. He stopped but out of nowhere some electrified nets flew from the side and he fell on the ground.

“Pink!” you and Helico cried out. You saw gold and orange Cyclopes closing up to him. Helico raised her hand, making water rise from the sewers. Then she swiped it in their direction and water tossed both Cyclopes away from Pink.

When you landed, you ran towards Pink, transforming your arms into claws. You ripped nets apart and freed him.

“Pink! Can you move?” concerned you try to lift him up. It took few moments for him to regain strength and balance.

“Y-yeah.” he breathed.

“Guys, you should go” Helico’s voice drew your attention. She raised both hands, drawing more water from the sewers, that dances before her and her stunned opponents “I’ll deal with them!”

Pink seems mesmerized by this as well, you take his hand and pull him towards you.

“Wait!” Pink looked back worried.

“She’ll be okay!” you assured him. That was enough and you both start running.

You passed this street and then you have to stop - you are not used to run like this.

“Why are they after you?” you asked between breaths. Pink looked away “I...well”

You both stood there in silence. Pink was staring at you with strange expression: like he feels guilty, but also fearful, trying to say something but unable to find find any words.

“Prince Pink, you must come with us at once!” the voice caught you off guard. Prince Pink?!

You turned around and saw emerald Cyclops standing in front of you. Their armor look different from ones you saw earlier, more detailed and their ram-like horns had multiple golden rings. They seemed armed with big battle gloves and something that looks like jetpack on their back.

“Emerald!” Pink growled as he’s trembling, spikes on his arms stood up. “Leave me alone!”

“I’m afraid I cannot do that. Queen’s orders.” they raised their fists, sounds like the gloves are charging as they lift themself above the ground with now activated jetpack. “So, you will return home whatever you like it or not!”

With those words Emerald charges towards Pink. You acted without thinking: you stood before Pink as you claws caught Emerald’s fists, stopping them.

“What the -” before Emerald could react, you threw them to the side, but jetpack prevented them from falling though.

“What part of “leave me alone” you don't understand?!” you yelled at them.

Emerald observed you for few moments.

“Interesting, so our little prince have found a bodyguard. Smart, but useless!” they charged again towards you this time. You focused to make multiple gears appear then you shoot them all at once. Emerald dodged most of it, but one actually hit them in the chest. It threw them off balance, forcing them to miss you. Then you grabbed their leg with you claw and smashed them against the concrete.

“Leave!” you warned.

Suddenly they got up and threw some-sort of flash grenade at you! Blinded, you had no time to react and in the second you were on the ground with Emerald on top of you.

“Hey.” they observed you more.” You actually look pretty this close!” they purred as moved their face closer and closer to yours. You froze, it reminds you of someone bad from you past. Someone who tried to do unspeakable thing you!

“LEAVE THEM ALONE!” Pink roared as he ripped Emerald off you, smashed them to the ground multiple times and send them flying.

You feel alarmed as you realized what almost just happened!

Did they tried to kiss you?! Disgusting!

“Cube!” Pink’s voice pulled you from thoughts! ”Are you okay?”

“I---I think so?” you hugged him “ Thank you!”

“I’m sorry!” he apologized “I froze and didn’t know what to do. Emerald is ruthless and always plays dirty and loves torturing people and -”

“I understand, that’s okay.” reassuring, you hugged him tighter.

Sadly, your moment of piece was interrupted as more Cyclopes arrived. This time there was at least ten or even more of them! What should you do? Can you fight all them? Or maybe use triangles? But what should you wish to stop them? No time to think!

“Pink, hold onto me!” you told him.

“What?!”

“Trust me!”

You summoned four claws: two you wrapped around Pink and used the other two to launch both of you into the air.

“Woah!” Pink gasped.It was enough to fly over the safety border.

Now you are falling to the ground level of Paradise which was few hundred of meters below you. After few seconds of free falling, concentrated onto your triangles to slow down. Gently, you floated between pine trees and in moment safely landed on the ground.

You are  on ground level of Paradise - a pine forest that was untouched for centuries. Despite the technologies that deliver sunlight to the ground it's still dark here because of how thick this forest is. People sometimes go camping here but only using official  safe trails and such - it’s so easy to get lost here! Not to mention there are several feral Goliath Monsters live here.

“Pink? How are you?” you checked on you friend, you received nervous chuckle in response.

“Cube, you scared shit out of me, but it was cool at same time!” he laughed, then signed in relief. “Good thing they won’t follow us here!”

Don’t jinx it!

You hear a familiar sound of jetpack approaching you fast. You groaned.

He jinxed it!

From the trees descended Emerald, again! What, is the lighting or he’s slightly different shade of green?

“Pink, stop being so stubborn! We’re tired of your games!” their voice is different, but they looks almost like Emerald! A twin?

“And I’m getting tired of this stupid chase, Jade!” Pink argued. “I. am. not. going. back!”

“Why? You can’t just abandon your family! Stop being such a baby and go home!” they scold him more, then the materialized their weapon - a trident “Or I’ll force you!”

With those words more troops were teleported to your location.

It was one moment of silence and no one dared to move until Pink broke it. He grabbed you and run. You yelped in surprise as he moved you onto his back, that allowed him to go on all fours.

You looked behind to see your pursuers already after you. One of them shoot eye laser, out of instinct you pulled Pink to the side making him dodge it. The laser flew past and  hit something ahead of you. That something made a loud roar and it turned around.

“Fuck!” Pink yelped and took a rough ninety degree turn, almost throwing you off his back. Yes, you remember about ferals here,right? Well, those jerks just angered the Goliath Feathered Bear!

The bear didn’t waste any second as it leaped at your pursuers. You heard screams mixed with roars as the bear was swiping them like flies. Jade refused to be distracted by the beast though, using a jetpack they tried to catch up with you but they suddenly stopped. They stood there for a moment and then teleported!?

You kept looking back in case to see any other Cyclopes chasing you.

Did they just...retreated?

“Pink! I think they stopped chasing us!” you said. That made Pink  stop and look back, finding no pursuers. He sighed with relief.

You got off his back as he sat down, trying to catch his breath.

“That bear though, they definitely didn't expected this!” now this situation seem amusing to you as danger have passed. Pink burst into giggles.

“Heh, well, there is no magical megafauna in my world! They never saw any creature this big!” he smirked.

“I guess we are lucky.”

“Yeah...”

You got notification that Square is calling.

You materialize your phone from inventory.

“Cube! Is Pink with you?” their voice sounds concerned.

“Yes! We just got away from other Cyclopes! They just stopped chasing us.”

“Yeah, Razor with other Goliaths trashed they ship, forcing them to retreat!”

“Really? That’s wonderful, I thought they will never leave us alone!”

“Yeah, they seem persistent to the point of stupidity. Are you both okay?”

“Yes? At least nothing serious!”

“Good!” they signed with relief “By the way, tell Pink that Termination Shock wants to speak with him. Nothing serious, they just need information regarding this “invasion”. We are on the Sol’s Plaza.”

“Alright, see you soon.” and you hung the phone.

You looked at Pink, his face full of concern and something? Anger? Or fear?

“Pink?” you softly drew his attention “We need to go to Sol’s Plaza. The officer wants to speak with you”.

Pink silently got up and opened the portal.

“Pink?”

“I’m sorry.” he whispered.

“What?” that caught you off guard “ I’m pretty sure you had a reason to leave and it’s not their right to just come and try to take you back by force!”

“Yeah, but now they know where I am. They come back…”

You took his hand. “We’ll figure something out. Come on, others are waiting.”

“Okay...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank yo for reading!  
> I love this chapter, I had so much fun to write!


	4. Looming from the Shadow

Space. A place that is empty and full at the same time.

You are weightless, swimming through the ocean of colorful hot gas and bright stars. Space is a hostile environment to organics, but for the unknown reason it feels like home to you. It’s good to be here, forgetting all your troubles as you listening to the song of stars.

You were always curious: what they are singing about? Sometimes they sing about new and empty planets, sometimes about new life, sometimes about achievements of their civilizations. Today is no exception.

“So, are you telling someone tried to invade your planet?” one star chirped.

Round of giggles filled the “air”.

“But aren’t your little guys are, like, super developed and stuff?” this one sound so young.

“I’m sure they didn’t know that! They came from a different world, like their prince.” this voice sounds familiar! They almost sound like…

“Hey, it’s Radiance again! Hi, Radiance!”

What? Strange, you felt no one new joining the song.

“Hey, Rad, how is your new body?”

Who are they talking to?

Your name is Cube and jolted upright as phone vibration woke you up from your nap.

You take the phone from the counter and squint into bright screen.

A message from Square.

“hey, TSh needs help, so i’ll be out all day”

You’ve sent “Ok” in response. Termination Shock often need their help, you hope it nothing too serious.

You stretched. Everything seems okay after the raid that happened a few days ago. It concerned you that Pink might get in trouble for this, especially after Treeangle accident. It wasn’t the case this time, Pink was only asked few questions. He was scared and talking with the police officer helped to ease his mind.

It’s weird to think about it, but this invasion was a good crash test for your arms. New upgrades worked smoothly. You lift at your arm. It’s still have default red look with no skin active. You should change it, but to what?

You sit up and activate prosthetic’s interface, browsing through different skins for half an hour. It’s hard to choose, but then a cosmic one caught your eye. This one looks amazing, it makes your arms looks like nebula with stars. Satisfied with your choice, you installed it and spend another twenty minutes just looking at it.

You phone vibrates again. A message, this time from your other friend, Crybaby.

“Cube, are you alright? I heard news about riot in your city.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. They didn’t stand a chance again us :)”

“Thank goodness!”

Crybaby is human, who lives in different dimension that your people call Grimaheim. It means “Home of Masks” because almost all humans there wear magical masks. You don’t know why, but Cry explained, that those masks are like second faces and has big cultural significance.

Crybaby loves music, playing piano, knitting and sing, just like you. Some people say you are his twin sibling, that taken away by fae. Even it’s a joke, it’s something that Skrimsliheim was infamous for. Good thing it’s not happening for centuries already.

The phone vibrates again.

“Are you still up for our collab then?”

Oh, right, the song collab.

“Sure! I’ll send you stuff tomorrow! :D”

“Sweet! I gotta go now, talk you you later.”

“Alright!”

You put your phone down. What now? You have nothing planned for today. Mentally you go through activities like working on more music, knitting, reading, playing games, but nothing sparks interest.

You sigh, boredom sucks. Maybe walk to Treeangle might help?

You got up and changed your clothes. You go downstairs and as you were at the door, you heard a loud crash coming from the garage.

“Again?” you groan.

You open garage door and the first thing you see is a toolbox laying on the side with all tools and gears scattered across the floor. Then you look to the right to see cause of this mess: that damn old shelf. You are not surprised anymore, it keeps breaking every time you fix it. You should replace it already, but you keep forgetting it!

You should stop fixing it. Just leave it.

Yeah, just let it be and when Square gets home, you’ll grab them and go to store. Actually, you should ask for help your dad, Tesseract. He’s good a choosing furniture.

You quickly pick up all the fallen stuff and put it into temporary box. You look around to make sure that anything is in order and your gaze fell onto you hoverbike. It’s been years since you rode it. You used to love riding around, but then your depression got worse and it forced you to stop.

You feel disappointment in your heart. This illness robbed you a lot of things for years. All because one jerk you considered a best friend refused to believe you and abused you. Good thing he’s in the jail and won’t bother you ever again. Plus things are getting better. Recently, your interest in astronomy was reignited. It feels good, like welcoming an old friend. So, maybe in future you be able to ride your hoverbike once again.

With anything in order, you left the house and went in the Treeangle’s direction. It’s warm, cloudy day outside and seems like rain is about to start. It’s not bothering you since you always carry an umbrella in your inventory.

As you walk, your mind wanders back to Pink again. You remember how angry you used to be about him after the whole Treeangle accident. Once you bumped into him. You never attack first, but you barely held yourself back from beating him.

You yelled at him instead. Pink was silent, looking at you with a guilty expression. You expected him to defend himself, saying how it wasn’t his fault and place guilt over you like bad people usually do. He apologized to you instead and didn’t say anything else. It softened you a bit because he admitted he did something wrong.

You walked away. Square and your dad, who is a doctor, still interacted with him. They told that guy was more frightened, rather someone evil and corrupted. That made you thinking, that perhaps he wasn’t planning to cause any havoc, but it was an accident. Pink never told why he did what he did, never tried to go back where he came from. It felt like he was hiding from someone, maybe he thought the Treeangle’s power can protect him.

And recent events just proved it.

Out of nowhere, a whistle pulled you out your thoughts. It wasn’t just a regular whistle, was your name.

Your name in orca language.

You looked around and saw a sky orca descending towards you. Those orcas sentient beings, who mastered telekinesis. That allows them to inhabit both sea and sky.

This one is Wave, as you call him in your language. He has a bent dorsal fin and unique wavy white markings. Very playful fella.

“Heyyyy!” he whistled happily.

“Hey, how you doing?” you asked.

Your dad taught you their language as he taught them yours. It makes communication much easier because there is no way you can replicate their singing. Your dad can on other hand.

“Great! I saw you and wanted to say“hi!” he replied with playful twirl.

“Awww.” you smiled

“I gotta go, but be careful! I saw strange machinery near Treeangle! Your dad is around, so I think it’s nothing.”

“Thanks, Wave. I’ll see you around.” and he dashed to the sky.

You became suspicious and increased you pace towards the tree. You didn’t go far as you saw drones are flying around. This is not Skrimsliheim technology!

“Unbelievable!” you heard a voice coming from the right. Turn around and meet face to face with Emerald.“ I didn’t expect to find you once again, but looks like luck is on my side. Do you live somewhere around here?”

“What did you forget here? Leave, you are not welcomed here!” you hissed.

“D’aww. Your anger is attractive, did you know this?” he moved closer. You transformed your arms into claws. “I like warrior girls like you.”

“I’m no girl. Now leave.” you cringed.

“You look like a girl! Are you one of those who defy”– you have no time for his crap and hurl boulder next to him as a warning.

“Ah, straight to the business.! I like you a lot despite your foolishness!” he pressed a button on his arm and drones gathered, surrounding you. “Let’s see how good are you against multiple enemies!

You braced yourself, then suddenly, all drones glowed green and were squashed into pancakes. It caught you off guard first, but you realized what it is.

“What the hell?” Emerald looked confused, then he noticed a looming shadow from behind. He turned around and saw a huge beast. It was an orca, like you saw before, but much larger. His body was covered in gold ornaments with green gems. The beast made a deafening angry screech.

“Welp, look like I have to go! See you later.!” Emerald pressed another button and black portal, similar to Pink’s, opened and he escaped.

You sighed with relief. You smiled at the beast as he took are a smaller form, revealing an arctic elf. His wavy long hair are gathered into a ponytail, with the small triangle floating above it. He has dark blue skin, green eyes. His face has dark square-shapes freckles, like yours. He’s wearing a long blue coat with gold ornaments, green shirt, grey pants and boots.

“Thanks dad!” you hugged him. “This guy was scary!”

Tesseract hugs you back “I’m glad I was here in time! Is this the guy from the raid you told me about?”

“Yeah…” you frowned, knowing where all this going. “He seems after me rather than Pink.”

“What a creep!” he sounds furious “Don’t wander outside of the city until he’s caught, okay? And call me if you get in trouble!”

“Of course.” you smiled. Your dad is very protective but he also gives you enough space. You can always call for help.

You look at squashed drones.

“Do you think Razor can salvage this primitive tech?”

“Of course! They are responsible for all technological progress after all” he said as he kicked drone’s chassis. “I’ll contact them. How about we go for ice cream afterwards?”

“Sure!” that sound nice, you love hanging out with dad. But first you need to do something.

You took your phone out to message Pink about danger. He shouldn’t go outside of the city ether.

* * *

 

Your name is Pink and you are anxious.

You are on the edge of the city and not sure what to do. Games and other things cannot distract you enough.

This attack still fresh in your mind. Another reminder that you cannot get away from your mother. She very persistent when she wants something and will destroy anything that stands in her way. Sending entire army after you only proves that she determined to achieve whatever she wants and she needs you.

She needs your powers to be exact.

You sigh, all of this is getting to you and you feel sick.

“Getting homesick, Voidwalker?” you a sweet voice of your right.

You turn to see a small, chubby woman. You recognize her - it’s Circle, the oldest of Legendary Shapes. She has dark skin, she’s wearing a round dress with circle ornaments on it. Orange glowing “hair” that generates circle-shapes particles, covers half of her face. She always seems being in a good mood.

You don’t know much about her. You heard that she can see past and future by touching a person, can teleport and control birds. Circle kinda seems to be a black mage too, but she never confirmed this.

“No.” you denied “The place I left was horrible.”

“You may don’t miss the place, but you sure miss her.”

Your eye widened in surprise. You know who is she talking about- your older sister, Fuchsia. You never mentioned her before. Rumors must be true!

Next moment guilt is plaguing your mind, you are supposed to be much stronger. You are supposed to just throw your mother off throne and let Fuchsia take the crown. But instead, you’re hiding like a pathetic coward while Fuchsia has to put herself in danger for you and your people.

She knows you left. She agreed on this with you. Both of you thought it was the only way to prevent your mother from using you…

But your mother still found her way around and now you putting anything in danger.

Your eye is tearing up, you miss Fuchsia so much.

“Why are you bringing this up?” you growled. “I can’t go back!”

“What happened a few days ago was a beginning of your journey’s culmination. You will find yourself in difficult situations and your decisions will affect many.” she said with a soothing voice.

Sounds like a lot depends on you. You don’t want this!

“I…” you want to protest, but your words got stuck in your throat.

“I’m sure you can handle this.” she smiled, tilting her head to the side “You’ve been striving for freedom for so long after all. Time finish this.”

“But what if I fail?” your anxiety is rising with possibilities. You are alone against your mother’s people, what possible chance you have against them?!

“Are you sure you are alone?”

Is she reading your mind or…

“PINK!” your blood went cold when you heard Jade’s voice calling your name. Without thinking you opened a portal. You felt a hand, grabbing onto your shirt as you jump into it. When went to the other side, you turned around and yank off this hand and meet Jade’s angry gaze.

“What do you think are you doing?” she said in a stern tone. “What are you trying to prove by running away from you home?!”

“I’m not proving anything!” you stepped a few steps back from her. “I’m not coming back!”

“How can you say such thing!? You left your home, your family, your people!” Jade yelled at you, looking at you in disbelief. “You are not allowed to be selfish!”

That makes your black blood boil!

“My mother is the one being terrible and selfish!” you hissed at her.

“How dare you insult your mother like that, you spoiled brat!!” Jade swiped her trident, sending an electric wave towards you. You jumped out its way. “She’s raised you, paid for your food, toys, education and that’s how you thank her??”

You have nothing to say to this. Jade points trident towards you, electrical sparks emitting from its edges.

“Time to grow up.”

With these words, Jade dashes at you. She swiped a trident in wide motion. You duck underneath it.

“Stop! I don’t wanna fight you!” you plead “I just wanna live in peace!”

“I don’t want to fight you either!” Jade quickly turned the trident around and hit you with blunt edge in stomach. You gasped in pain.. “But you are not behaving, so I have no choice but punish you!”

“I’m not a child anymore!” you formed a ring of pink spiky projectiles around you. “I can choose where to live, with whom I live and how I live!” you launch spikes one by one at Jade. She dodges few, then parry others with the trident.

Darn, she’s skilled warrior.

Jade jumped, sending more waves at you. You dodge them but Jade used it as the distraction to get closer to you. She attacks quick and hard, trying to knock you on the ground. You try your best to block them, but she managed to hit you hard on the right side and your left leg. You winced, there is no way you can beat her.

You have to run.

You push her away as strong as you can. She stumbled and fell into bushes.

This is your chance!

You focused on first thing your mind came up, Cube’s house, and opened another portal. Suddenly, you felt a sharp burning pain on you back, sending you flying for meters away from the portal.

“You won’t get away!” Jade yelled, sending another wave. It hits you in the chest this time. The pain is intense, forcing you to curl up.

“Shit…” you wheezed as you hear steps closing up to you.

“I’ve got him, General. Yes, I’m sending him over.” you hear her saying. Your eye widened. General?! Not her! You won’t able to escape ever if she’ll get her hands onto you! “Time to go home, prince.”

No way, no way, no way! You will not go back!

In this moment you snapped. You lift your upper body and shoot an eye laser at Jade. You don’t know if you hit her or not, but you didn’t care. Fear drives you into blind rage, firing laser around you as you scream.

Then you feel yourself falling. You curl up as you hit branches until you reached the ground. Anything went silent.

You lay on the ground, listening to the environment, trying to spot any sign of Jade. After a few minutes, it’s still silent. You hear birds and other natural sounds. Looks like she lost you!

You sigh with relief and sit up. You winced in pain, Jade did hurt you a lot. You look around and realized you don’t recognize this place at all. It’s dark, dark forest, even more darker than forest on ground level of Paradise. Bioluminescent vegetation surrounds you, it looks beautiful and yet terrifies you.

You have no idea where are you!

Anxiety is bombarding your mind. How far away are you from home? Are even on the same planet?? What if you teleported back to your dimension and now your mother is coming for you right now??? This is what happens when you open a portal without thinking!

Before your mind went into full panic mode, you got a notification from you inventory. Someone is messaging you. You took out your phone and relieved to find a message from Cube! That means you still in Skrimsliheim!

“Don’t go outside of the city, those jerks from you home are still here! =/ I just stumbled upon Emerald. Don’t worry, I’m okay and my dad chased him off. Be careful!”

You stare at the massage, this is terrible. Jade, Emerald and their general, Cobalt are still somewhere around here. They must be hiding to avoid the police, but they know where to look for you! Should you tell this to Termination Shock? Even though you don’t have any new information. You wish you were more useful.

You were going to reply Cube, you caught something on the corner if your eye. You turn around to see what it is and you heard skips a beat. It’s dark, but you swear, you can see the familiar shade on pink no far away from you. You got up and went to get a closer look.

You cannot believe this!

There is Cyclops, a long single horn is growing from her forehead, her braided hair wraps around her neck. She’s wearing a crown, that looks richer than yours, a tunic with long sleeves, ornate pants and shin guards.

“Fuchsia!” you instantly filled with joy, forgetting all the pain you are going through. You can’t believe she’s here too! You walk towards her. She didn’t noticed you yet, but something scared her and she ran off.

“Fuschia, I’m here! Wait!” you called after her. Why is she running? It she’s hiding from Jade too?

“Wait for me!” you start running after her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm alive! Sorry, it took me way too long to finish, but stuff from real live got in the way a lot. But's I'm still working on PP at slower pace.  
> I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as you enjoyed the rest)
> 
> Btw: I have Tumblr and Twitter ( @IscaRedspider on both) where I post art :)


	5. Drowning in Rain

Your name is Pink and your heart racing!

Through the dark woods you are following your sister. She’s being surprisingly fast while your keep calling her name to draw her attention. This is strange, is Fuchsia scared that much she doesn't notice you?

You follow her into strange cave under a small hill.

“Fuchsia?” you called her again as you walked deeper into the cave. Walls are covered in purple, goopy-looking stuff that smells terrible. Glowing mushrooms and insects are  illuminating the cave.

Then you saw your sister but something was wrong. She looked weird. Maybe it’s because lack of light, but her features are different. Her horn is too long, her face seemed slightly different and she’s even being taller than you!

Then you noticed she doesn't have a white cane with her. In unfamiliar place she doesn't know layout yet. That’s not right...

Before you could react, “Fuchsia’s” form twisted in unnatural position, revealing multiple limbs with sharp claws on each and multiple whip-like tails. The creature’s neck extended, it’s mane became longer, covering it’s “face”. 

It growled at you and jumped.You snap out of shock just in time to dodge. It quickly turned around and would’ve chomp your arm off if you hadn't grabbed it’s head. You wrestling with the beast as it pinning you to the goopy wall. That gross stuff is soaking through your t-shirt. 

It burns! It hurts a lot!

Hissing, with all your strength you pulled back and smashed the beast against the wall. It fell and trashed on the ground, hitting your face with the tails. You yelped in pain, instinctively covering your face with palm.  Your vision gets blurry and head start throbbing.

Get out, fast!

You dashed towards the exit, but suddenly you felt sharp claws digging into your back. You screamed as you fell on the ground. Then beast bit you in the shoulder. You struggled against it, trying to get it with your claws. You managed to scratch it somehow. The beast roared in pain, you kept scratching it until it backed away. 

Now it’s your chance! You stood up and started punching this freaking thing. Then grabbed it and slammed it to the ground.

The beast growled at you, struggling to get up.

“Don’t you dare!” you panicked and threw you spiky projectile, hitting it. After this beast decided it had enough and crawled deeper into a cave.

You took few deeps breaths, trying your best to ignore screaming pain all over your body. You shouldn’t linger and headed outside.

Limping as fast as you could despite the pain you managed to get away from this cursed place, then you collapsed under a tree.

In that moment you begin to realize the whole situation.

You’re completely lost, in the middle of black woods where sunlight doesn't touch the ground. As if it wasn’t enough, the nature itself decided rain on you. It’s getting so cold, you curled into shivering ball as you try to process what just happen to you.

What in the hell was that beast?! 

Square warned you many time to not wander in wilderness alone. You knew about feral Goliath Monsters, but this?? This is a whole new level! Can this beats read minds or something?! How else it would disguise itself as your sister to lure you?!

Fuchsia...

You are drowning in sadness. Circle was right, you are homesick. Not because you miss your home, but your sister. Fuschia was the only person who cared about you. If she wasnt for her, you would probably turn into puppet in your mother hands like your older brother.

Fuschia did anything to make sure you will grow up as better person. 

You wanna go back and see if she’s alright, but you can’t! You promised her you will stay away from you mother, from your world. It was only a way to prevent her from using your powers. 

Your hand moved to your chest, grabbing the teeth amulet you always carry under your shirt. That amulet was supposed to keep you safe and hidden! Fuchsia thought it'll be safer, you thought there is no way she can find you in distant dimension. 

But somehow they have found you and they won't give up.

Both Jade and Emerald are excellent warriors. But their general, Cobalt, is even worse. She’s not just experienced solder and person who did a great job alienating you, painting you like so sort of laboratory monster to public, but you can’t beat her. You fought her before, you can’t just win!

How are you supposed to fight against this?! This is hopeless!

As rain goes on you’re crying as quietly as you can, making no sound. You are so tired, your back is hurting so much and you grow weaker with every move. You feel like dying, maybe it’s not a bad option after all...

“You faced the Faceless alone and survived!” out of nowhere you hear this unfamiliar voice. “ Unbelievable!”

You hear small footsteps coming towards you.

“Who…” you turn your head at them. Your vision is blurry, but you can clearly see their pink glowing eyes.

“You shouldn’t move or poison will affect you more.”

You hissed in pain as their three fingered palm slightly touched your back. 

“Relax, you’re gonna be fine.”

They put something cold onto you wounds, feels like salve. It stinged for few moments then pain subsided. You relaxed and didn’t noticed how you fell asleep.

 

* * *

Your name is Square and you’re busy as hell today.

Termination Shock wanted to you join them in partoll to see if there any potential thread from cyclopes that invaded your city couple days ago.  Everything is fine so far: no cyclopes or weird machinery. 

“So…” you broke the silence “What do we know so far?”

TShock hummed, tying to collect his thoughts. “Not much. Your friend is being pretty evasine on the subject. I cannot blame him, but it would help a lot if he was more willing to share information.”

“So, aside him being a price we know nothing.”

“Yes. Say, maybe Pink will be more open with you?”

“Good question! We’re kinda in weird relationship right now.” you chuckled 

“I see.” 

You both keep moving through the city, looking for anything suspicious. Something about this feels off, even though you don't think that Pink would hide important information out of malice. This guy was terrified, while being powerful as fuck. The issue is much, much bigger than it seems. Perhaps you should ask him, and keep asking until he tell you anything, but you don't wanna pressure too much. Pressuring is Pentagon’s thing. Should you ask Circle? Her messages are always cryptid and mysterious, but it's worth a shot. 

Suddenly you received a notification from your inventory. It’s your phone, you put it out. A message from Cube. Your eyes widened, Tshock’s suspicion was correct.

“Hey, Officer, Cube just send me a message, you should see this!” you gave them your phone.

The message says:

“I just stumbled upon Emerald just near Treeangle! This jerk tried to pick up fight with me, but me dad chased him off. He had a lot of drones, all busted now. If you with Termination SHock, please, let them know!”

“I see! Alright then, I’ll go get people investigate ASAP. You’re dismissed for today, but let me know if you find anything else. ”

“Will do. See you later! ” you waved at the office then dashed forward. 

It didn’t take you long to get to Treeangle, you can see both Cube and Tesseract are slowly walking away from piles of broken tech. They wave at you as they quickly noticed your approach.

“Wow that was fast!” Tesseract commented

“Yeah, we weren’t too far away from here. Cube are you okay?”

“Yeah, but I’m still creeped out, I’ll break his legs next time!” they hissed.

“ You’ll sure do, but it's better if you won't encounter him again.” Tesseract warned.

Cube didn’t said anything, but you could see in their face something is up. You decided to not question and just slowly headed home with them.

“Yep I’m agree!” you looked behind to see squashed drones laying on the ground. “ So those are drones? What he was doing? Did he tried to mess with Treeangle?”

“Hmmm, I don’t know.” Cube put their finger under their chin.” He didn’t seems to be interested in Treeangle but he was clearly looking around, probably for any sight of Pink.”

“Strange. I guess he didn’t realized what power Treeangle possess?” Tesseract wondered. “Pink was pretty straightforward when he discovered it.” 

“Yeah, but Pink can sense magic. I assume not anyone can.” you shrugged.

“Yeah. I really hope he’s more careful now. Seriously, I’m getting worrying about him a lot lately.” he huffed ”How one can be that irresponsible sometimes?” 

“Oh no, what happened this time?” Cube got worried.

“Well, apparently he thought he ate blue cheese, but in really it was just spoiled cheese with black mold. Worst part - he didn't go to hospital and people were the ones calling us because he collapsed on the street.” Tesseract sight “This kid will give me heart attack one day.”

“Damn, being his doctor must be tough.” you smirked. He chuckled at your response.

Pink has no idea how to survive on his own, you had explain him a lot of things. Still this idiot manages to hurt himself somehow once in a while!

Three of you kept walking, talking about random stuff. As you reached your house you notice a black spacerip before it.

“Is that Pink’s portal?” you floated closer to it, others came close too.

“I hope so, I don’t know any other black mage who would teleport to my house.” Cube spoke, then looked around. “ I don't see him though.”

You looked around too but there is no sight of him. The portal made a strange sounds as it began to shrink.

“A black portal usually disappears when someone passes through.” Tesseract frowned.”But portal still here, that means --”

“Alright, I’m gonna check this!” you jumped into portal! You hear “Wait!” coming from Cube behind as you hear them and Tesseract following you. The portal closed as three of you passed through it.

You recognize this place immediately: it’s Black Forest Pit. 

This place is super dangerous, nobody comes here, even the bravest daredevils in the world. The reason is simple: it’s home of the Faceless’, animals that can read your mind and take a shape of ppl you know to lure you into their lairs. Hell, even you don’t like them even though they are afraid of you because of poison. It’s harmless for most, but those guys? Their brains are so delicate that hallucinations would kill them.

The area before you looks like a completely mess: some trees are on the ground, some trees had fresh scratch marks and burned areas. Not to mention a big hole in the middle that leads onto lower level. It started raining as well.

“Damn, looks we missed the show here.” you felt slightly disappointed.

“Hm, I can sense Pink down there.” Tesseract said, looking down to the right. “He’s not far away.”

“Let's go then!” you jumped down. Tesseract used his telekinetic abilities to glide with Cube to the ground.

You followed Tesseract and soon enough you saw Pink, lying under a tree...with Flora Elemental you haven't seen in a while!

“Pink!” Cube run over Pink, followed by their dad. You moved towards the Elemental.

Lycantropy. This guy has a quite of reputation. He used to be a Moon Priest back in the day, when Theia, the Moon Celestial Beats, used to be around. It’s pretty dangerous for Elemental to become black or white mage as they are very sensitive to magic. He tooks risks and it mostly worked out for him...until Theia disappeared. He was deemed dead for centuries, until recently, when Pink’s corruption… whatever it to him.

“Hello, L’Shape. Your timing is perfect as I finished treating this poor fella.” he motioned towards Pink. Tesseract was keenling by him, checking his vitals.

“What happened?” Cube turned to him.

“He fought with Nameless” Lycantropy said. “ He was in great pain, so I applied my resin to shooche this wounds.”

“He’s stable, thank you.” Tesseract commented. ”Now we need to get him to the hospital. I guess I’ll fly.”

“No need.” Lycantropy stopped him before he could transform “ I’ll open a portal for you”

What?

In a second, a wand materialized in his hand. It’s short with pink spiked circle on the top. Kinda looks like Pink’s tattoos on his palms. Then with sharp motion he stabbed the air, then moved it up, rippin the space appeared, forming a black portal.

“I didn’t know that Elementals also can be black mages?” Cube surprised. 

“Yes, most of us don’t go this path. I just like to play risky.” he smiled. “ The Portal ready, it should take you to the central hospital.”

Tesseract and Cube thanked him, while you are curious. Since when he became a black mage? You wanna know, but decided to ask about it later.

Tesseract used telekinesis to lift Pink from the ground and all of you passed through the portal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Faceless is based off Nosk from Hollow Knight!
> 
> Thank you for reading! ^^  
> I'm so happy that I still get kudos even tho I'm being so slow with u[dates. Thanks, that means a lot :3


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